A Politics of Bad Intentions THERE ARE THOSE worried about the next mayor of our city. They have good reason. We are at a crossroads. Our longtime mayor, a Democrat, died leaving a full four-year term. His party will caucus later this month to select a replacement. The Republicans, given ininspired leadership and demographic shifts, have gone moribund and are not expected to return to power — ever. The sad thing is that our mayor, rest in peace, the affable owner of a neighborhood…

by Mark Franke The signs of spring are everywhere but something just doesn’t seem right.It’s partly due to our typical northern Indiana weather. As a lifelong resident I should beaccustomed to temperatures in the 60s one day and the 30s the next. It happens every year at this time but my tolerance level must be in decline. The golf courses have opened. I know that because I live on a golf course and I can…

Holcomb ‘Predicts’ an Eclipse YOU CAN MAKE  too much of this, but that Gov. Eric Holcomb has to declare a state of emergency to get us through an event fully understood for four centuries is pathetic — necessary, perhaps, given the state of society, but pathetic. Tens of thousand of visitors are expected to gather in Indiana cities along the path of the shadow caused by the upcoming solar eclipse, a simple occultation. One would hope it…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll When I used to bartend, people advised me to keep a dictionary handy, that and the works of Shakespeare. Patrons could then resolve many arguments by resorting to those two sources. While dictionaries are especially useful for peace in a…

Common Sense 1; Woke 0 PLEASE FORGIVE this “my faith in human nature is restored” moment. You do not need anyone to tell you that what comes out of a DEI-soaked executive suite is not as reliable as the lunch talk on the factory floor. You can call it common sense or dispersed knowledge but it is what a wiser generation depended upon to make life’s decisions. I thought it went under in this last wave of political correctness, but…

Donald Trump and ‘Truth Social‘ ONE THING ABOUT the old smoke-filled rooms was we knew who was in them — and that they were all U.S. citizens. Campaign finance “reform” took that away. The Virginia House of Burgesses prohibited George Washington from popping a cork for some political friends: “No money, meat, drink, entertainment or provision, any present, gift, reward or entertainment, etc. can be given in order to be elected,” spake the Burgesses. Clear enough, but…

Our ‘War’ with Indiana University “ARE YOU GOING TO WAR with Indiana University-Bloomington?” is the question prompted by a string of essays challenging the university’s leadership, particularly its admission policies. Hah, it would be a short war, is our reply. Our foundation is no match for a university with rooms full of lawyers to field Freedom of Information requests, hundreds of influential faculty members and powerful alumni throughout the state, including many in public office. It would be…

Welcome to the Kipling Cluster EVER WONDER where you fit in society — exactly, that is? I wonder, and it’s ugly. There’s the eye color, a physical characteristic akin to skin pigment, one that can be used to discriminate by a brown-eyed majority. The blue-eyed in America stand at only 25 percent and dropping, a mere 8 percent globally. The green- and hazel-eyed hardly register. Now I learn that I have been identified by a Yale researcher…

No, Dr. Whitten, We’re Not Equal “We are not the party of identity politics, you utter idiots.” Ann Coulter critiquing the GOP response to the State of the Union. READING THE WORDING in the 74 bills that Gov. Holcomb signed into law this week, you were struck by the hypersensitivity to offending even slightly any segment of the population that might feel the tiniest bit unequal.  Peripherally, nothing in the bills or in the press announcements was…

by Mark Franke It is a matter of discipline with me to avoid listening to political speeches. They are hardly edifying and the current trend is a pronounced one toward less and less enlightenment each time a politician rises to his legs and starts talking. Last week’s State of the Union address by President Biden accelerated the velocity in that direction if the news reports, all with their own biased spins of course, are indicative.…